St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-16

I'D III Mrs. Purr0y, an
elderly lady, Wis
iting friends living on Clinton avenue,
Alameda, but whose home is In Brook
Ign, n. Y. looked with an air of mingled
pride and reverence upon the carving,
Tor her name was once Elma Griffin,
and the coffin was made to hold her re-
mains.
"On my nineteenth birthday" she
said, my mother invited number of
acquaintenceS to our house to celebrate
the day. We lived some distance out
side of Williamsburg, as it was then,
and the ground was a little soft and
DOGGY. One of my friends remembered
this as she was about TO start home with
her brother, and she laughingly cOngrat-
ulated me on being housed already and
having no occasion to brave the swamp.
/ was wild young girl in those days,
and declared at once that | would go
with them and return alone. Every
body present tried to diSSuade me eX-
cept the girls brother. We started. and
when | reached my friends house | was
conscious that my feet were quite wet
and that a diSagreeable chill had crept
over me, but declined an invitation to
go III, and went away at once. Of course
RoD-the brother, L mean-came with
me, and somehow forgot the cold and
damp as | walked home, says the San
Francisco Examiner:
Il think we must have talked for a
long time as we stood on my uncle's
doorstep, for suddenly Rob-my escort
meannsaid: 'Elma, your face is very
pale. Have kept you standing here
too longT He talked to me for ten min
utes after that, and then wished me
good night and left me. / rang the bell,
and when my mother opened the door
told her what | might have known an
hour sooner, if had given it thought,
that was really ill. She hurried me to
bed Immediately, and when she came to
call me the following morning she
looked very anxious. By noon was
delirlouS, but could hear the doctor tie ii
my mother | had typhoid fever, and
that he conld not hold out
MUCH HOPE FORM RECOVERY.
~ knew that my mother was weeping,
but | was always a selfish girl, and |
could only cry out: Robert! Robert!
Where is Roberto and they told me,
hardly thinking that heard them, that
Robert had been suddenly called upon
to start for California early that morn
ing. and had not even heard of my ill
ness. He sent letter to me, however
but L did not see it until many weeks
later.
II grew rapidly worse, and gradually
the knowledge of all outward things
passed from me. [. fancy that [ had
certain consciousness, but not of mat
tiers around me. | was in another state
of being, in which the person acting
and speaking always strangely speak
mg-waS myself, and yet not myself.
when came an utter blank, from which l
awoke, after nearly three weeks of OBJ
livion, to see my mother and the doctor
standing by my bedside. The doctor
said the crisis was past and l should
probably recover, but l did not feel any
Interest in what he was talking about.
1.-THE quiet days of convaleScen,e fol-
lowed, and the doctor, seeing that l was
very weak, regarded me seriously, and
warned my mother that relapse should
be carefully guarded against. used at
that time, too, to fall into curious
physical conditions that suppose were
frances, in which | knew all that was
going on around me, but from which |
did not seem to care to arouse myself by
moving or speaking. These periods
lasted longer and longer, but they were
not observed, and as they were rather
pleasant than otherwise | said nothing
about them.
"One morning l awoke from what
seemed to be natural sleep, and lay
with my eyes closed listening to sounds
that | could not at first interpret: but
my mother was sobbing beside my bed.
tried to ask her why she was grieving,
but L could not move or speak. The
trance was upon me. L was sensitive,
however, and knew that l was lying
upon hard substance and not upon the
comfortable mattress of my bed. could
feel, too, very little covering over me,
and despite my eyelids being down the
gloomy darkness of the room could be
in hn
they carriad me top l thought.
Presently l heard my mothers
voice, and | knew that she was speak
ing to my cousin Mary, who was STAY
ing in the house with us.
Poor Elma, she said Il was so
sure that God would spare her to me.
She struggled through that dreadful ill
ness only to die quietly in her sleep at
last. 1t is very hard, Mary
81 have often wondered since that l
DID NOT REALLY DIE OF HORROR.
at that moment, as [ realized like a
lightning flash that they thought l was
dead and had put me in my coffin. They
were going to bury me. l strove hard
to speak, but the sphinx was not more
dumb than |. l tried to stir, but the
rock of Gibraltar might have moved as
easily. Must my life be smothered out
in grave for want of little speech or
action now?' thought.
sit is hard, indeed, dear aunt re-
piled Mary. but His will be done. You
must arouse yourself. The undertaken
will close the coffin in few minutes.
Do you think Robert-Mr. Purrow-will
be here?'
81 hardly think so now answered
my mother, YEARLY. Something must
have happened to delay him. He was
to have arrived at home yesterday, but
he did not come, and 1 postponed the
burial until to-day. He had not heard
will nearly kill HIM. There is one per-
son in the world, 1 think, who loves
poor Elma as dearly as did,
=" %, Robert, Robert l cried with
silent voice, come quickly. If you look
at me you will know l am not dead
Il heard knock at the bedroom
door. Was it Robert? No, it was only
the undertaken.
MAY 1 close it now, ladies?' he
asked in professionally mournful but
very buSiness-like tones.
Nobody but myself knew that my
heart was beating, and hardly knew it
as the undertaken spoke. A second
afterward it seemed to me that it
thr0bbed loudly enough for every
body to her it, for somebody
rang the bell and l knew as well
that it was Robert as though my
sealed eyes could. have looked throu gh
brick and wood and mortar to see him
standing outside. Softly and quietly
he entered the room; gravely and calmly
he asked my mother and my cousin to
leave him for few minutes alone with
his dead. He closed the door after they
had gone out, and, STOPPING over the
coffin, gently kissed me. Then he
started. / heard the quick, nervous
movement, and knew that l was saved.
"He hastily called my mother and the
doctor was quickly summoned. He saw
at once that life was not extinct, though